Hillary Clinton joined Barack Obama in Unity, N.H. for their first joint appearance. Clinton thanked supporters and said she would campaign for the Illinois senator “to create an unstoppable force for change we can all believe in.” For his part, Obama repeatedly praised both Hillary Clinton and former president Bill Clinton.

Clinton returned to the Senate from vacation on June 23 with a renewed sense of purpose and influence thanks to her performance during the primary season. Despite no promise of a leadership position and a Senate seniority ranking of 68, Clinton is predicted to be a powerful force in Congress in the months to come.

Clinton officially suspended her campaign on June 8 with a speech given at the Building Museum in Washington, D.C., where she stressed party unity and the barriers that her campaign had broken through. Obama responded, “Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life.”

According to ABC News, efforts to unify the party behind Obama as the nominee have failed to convince a number of important Clinton fundraisers, citing a cold reception when Obama met with 150 of the N.Y. senator’s top donors. Although some felt he failed to connect with those in attendance, most did say they would eventually support Obama against John McCain.

A reason for the pair’s appearance in Unity appears to be Obama’s obstacle in wining over Clinton supporters in New Hampshire. The state voted for John Kerry in 2004, it supported George W. Bush in 2000, making it an important possible swing state.

In a largely symbolic move, both Barack and Michelle Obama donated the maximum legal amount to Clinton’s campaign to help relieve her debt, only to receive a donation of the exact same amount from Hillary and Bill Clinton the following day.

Reporting from backstage at the event in Unity, Newsweek’s Howard Fineman sees much more that needs to be done before the Democratic Party can coalesce around Obama, specifically dealing with Clinton’s sizeable campaign debt.

Despite efforts to showcase a sense of unity to Clinton supporters, some who supported the N.Y. senator have remained vocally opposed to Obama. Some, including Women For Fair Politics and PUMA have insisted they will vote for John McCain rather than Obama in the general election.

The site of the two senator’s first joint appearance, Unity, N.H. is a town of about 1,700 and got its name from the resolution of a land dispute in the 1700s. The town was pretty evenly split between Republicans and Democrats in this year’s primaries, and residents voted evenly for Obama and Clinton in the state’s primary, 107-107.